It is a work of astonishing complexity: a song by a rock band with six discrete and very different sections.
It was released in the U.K. on October 31, 1975, three weeks before the album, A Night at the Opera. By the end of the year it topped the U.K. chart for a nine-week run. In the U.S., where it was “rush released” that December, it only reached #9. Yet by all common wisdom of the time it was anything but radio friendly. (In 1991, following writer and singer Freddie Mercury’s death, it soared back to #1 in U.K. for a five-week stretch. The following year it returned to the American Hot 100 and topped out at #2 thanks to its pivotal position in the movie Wayne’s World.)
Ultimately Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of classic rock music’s most stunning musical achievements in a single song and a formidable monument to the ingenious creative imagination of the late Freddie Mercury.
We’ve previously celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Queen’s masterpiece, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” with stories about its recording and producing its breakthrough video. We even shared a clip of a one-year-old girl headbanging to the song.
Our Classic Video is a 2015 interpretation from England of the song that melds Queen’s live performance from Christmas Eve 1975 with that of the Trinity Boys Choir, a string quartet from the Royal Academy of Music (wow!) and two members of the English National Ballet.
Well done all around!
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Related: Our Album Rewind of A Night at the Opera
